From NEHJ: Charlie Coyle at home on Wild top line

Through 24 games, Charlie Coyle had posted four
goals and three assists and was skating with top-liners
Zach Parise and Mikko Koivu. (Getty Images)

If you feel like Charlie
Coyle’s been donning a different uniform each time a new
hockey season starts, you’re not exactly crazy.

Since his freshman year at
Weymouth High, the 6-foot-2 forward has suited up for Thayer
Academy, the EJHL’s South Shore Kings, Boston University, the
QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs and the AHL’s Houston
Aeros. In the midst of all that, he was traded on draft night in
2011, a year after being selected by San Jose and just moments
after purchasing plane tickets to the Sharks’ upcoming
prospects camp.

As if that wasn’t
enough of a whirlwind, he’s now playing on the top line for
the Minnesota Wild, a team that caught fire in March and began the
month of April tied atop the Western Conference’s Northwest
Division.

“I was thinking of this
the other day. I think in the last five years, I’ve played
for six teams,” said Coyle. “I’m always on the
move and jumping to a new team. It’s kind of fun to adjust to
something new. It’s happened so fast. It seems like just the
other day I was 12 years old out shooting pucks and working on my
shot to get here one day. It feels like all the hard work has paid
off and it’s finally here. It’s crazy how fast
it’s come and that I’m living my dream right now in the
NHL.”

The journey hasn’t been
without its challenges. In December 2011, after much deliberation,
Coyle (East Weymouth, Mass.) elected to leave Hockey East for the
Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, shedding his role as a
student-athlete and going somewhere he’d be able to strictly
focus on hockey.

“Oh, gosh. It was ... ah,
it was hard,” Coyle said of telling coach Jack Parker
(Somerville, Mass.) he’d be leaving the team. “It was
literally the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make. BU was
the only school I wanted to go to and the only one I looked at when
I was looking at colleges. That’s where I wanted to be. But
everyone has their own path. It was definitely hard to go in there
and tell him that. It was something I thought I should do and I did
it, and I think it worked out.”

As if the experience
wasn’t agonizing enough, word of his departure got out before
Coyle was able to break the news to his fellow Terriers.

“My roommate Adam
Clendening was at the World Juniors with me. I wanted to tell him
the whole time — he’s my roommate, my best friend there
— and I just couldn’t. And then he’s hearing
these little blurbs about me leaving. It was just a weird
situation. Parker then went back and told everyone just to clarify
everything, but I wanted to tell the whole team, face them myself
and tell them myself, but that wasn’t in the cards, I
guess.”

No matter how much confidence he
had in thinking it was the right move, Coyle knew there was still
the possibility that he’d struggle in the “Q.”
Luckily that wasn’t in the cards either, as he led the Sea
Dogs to the Memorial Cup, winning MVP of the QMJHL playoffs after
racking up 34 points in 17 games.

“Yeah, that was nice,
’cause there’s always the chance I go up there and
don’t produce,” said Coyle. “Then it’s
like, ‘Oh, maybe I made the wrong decision. Maybe I
should’ve stayed.’ I went out there and just felt good.
I could focus 100 percent on hockey. We won our league, I played on
a great team. It just all came together up there and I knew it was
a great decision.”

After turning pro and playing
well for the Wild’s farm team in Houston, Coyle earned a
promotion to the big club and is skating on a line with star winger
Zach Parise and center Mikko Koivu.

“It’s pretty
cool,” he said. “It’s obviously something
I’ve been working toward, getting to this stage. It’s
nice to be up here in Minnesota. I’m fine just being up here.
It’s just a little extra to be on that top line. It’s
pretty cool to play with those guys, but I’m just happy to be
able to play with this team.”

After being a young man on the
move year after year, carving out a role with his current club and
staying a while is just what Coyle hopes to do. Through 24 games,
Coyle has four goals and three assists for seven points, with 11
penalty minutes and a plus-6 rating.

“I definitely want to stick up here in Minnesota,”
said Coyle, who potted his first NHL goal a week before his 21st
birthday. “Everyone wants to be in this league. I definitely
want to earn a spot here, stay up here and try to help this team
win — whatever role they put me in. We have a great group of
guys. When we play our game and we’re on, I think this team
can do a lot. I’m really excited to see what we can
do.”

This article originally
appeared in the April 2013 issue of New England Hockey
Journal.